


Not Gone, but Waiting

by Anonymous



Category: Naruto
Genre: Akatsuki Hatake Kakashi, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, BAMF Hatake Kakashi, Gen, Good Uchiha Obito, Missing-Nin Hatake Kakashi, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:09:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26157067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: In another world, the Fourth War ended differently. AULoose continuation of "If I Wasn't Afraid (I Am Now)" by raendown, can be read as a standalone
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Obito
Comments: 7
Kudos: 91
Collections: Anonymous





	Not Gone, but Waiting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raendown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/gifts).
  * Inspired by [If I Wasn't Afraid (I Am Now)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15705885) by [raendown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown). 



> This is one of the final scenes from a story I have mapped out, but I'm unsure of when or if I will ever write it out fully. But I wanted to post it anyway. Context: Kakashi has the rinnegan and is the juubi jinchuuriki like Obito did and was. This is right after Kakashi gets talk no jutsu'd into maybe not enslaving the whole world, then Zetsu tries the possession/turn into Kaguya thing. Madara is just dead here because I didn't like what they did with him in canon. Includes a couple of other minor changes from canon that are remnants of the larger story, but nothing major.  
> Loose continuation of "If I Wasn't Afraid (I Am Now)" by raendown. Go read their work, it's way better than mine.

“From the moment you started your little escapade, the one thing that was never in doubt was that it was going to end this way. Everything you’ve done, has been for my benefit, regardless of whether or not you knew it.” Black Zetsu smirked from where it held Akatsuki’s leader in the air by the throat. His signature mask was pooled around his neck, and without it the S-rank missing-nin somehow looked a lot more human. “It’s over, boy. You’re mine.”

The entire Shinobi Alliance, paused in its fighting, bore witness as Zetsu’s body seemed to melt into itself. It shot up his arm and onto Kakashi, splattering itself over his body before coagulating and tightening around the missing-nin.

Even if Obito didn’t have his sharingan to watch it happen, he could  _ feel _ the moment their chakras began to merge, an unnatural fusion that nature itself seemed to be against. As it was, Obito watched as Kakashi’s fierce ozone, always sparking and ready to move, was strangled and tainted by Zetsu’s toxic, primordial chakra. Kakashi's eyes were narrowed in pain, and Obito could see his chakra lash out at Zetsu’s violation of his very spirit. Violent chakra rolled off of him in waves, and Obito staggered back. He felt as though he might faint just being in the vicinity. He could see Naruto and Sasuke brace themselves against the force out of the corner of his eye.

Kakashi grit his teeth as he bit his words out. “ _ You… do… not… control me!” _

The black wrapping around his body pulsed. Kakashi’s eyes briefly flashed yellow. His lips twisted into a sickening smirk, although the rest of his expression was contorted in pain. “Oh, silly wolf,” Kakashi crooned, in a voice that was his but  _ wasn’t _ . It sounded higher, and had a more delicate quality that Obito had never before heard in Kakashi’s smooth tones.  _ Kaguya _ , Obito realized with dread. “You were never in control to begin with.”

Kakashi slammed his hands together in the rat symbol. He shrieked in pain as lightning arched off his body, carving deep gouges into the earth around him. The nearest shinobi leapt back further to avoid it. The longest arcs reached nearly twenty yards, a violent explosion of Kakashi’s energy. The mass of Zetsu around him boiled and shifted, but never lost its grip on the shinobi. “I am the Will! I am the shepherd!” Kakashi shouted. “I will bring peace to the shinobi world, and you will not stop me!”

A complicated series of conflicting expressions quickly passed over Kakashi’s, before it settled into a grin. “You’ve said it yourself,” Kaguya’s voice once again took over. Obito watched, horrified, as the oily substance began to force its way down Kakashi’s throat. His old teammate’s eyes, for the first time since Obito had known him, widened in fear. He desperately clawed at the inky tendrils around his mouth, but the substance just gave way under his fingers. Kakashi gagged around the next words forced from his throat. “You are nobody.” Despite Kaguya clearly intending it as a whisper, an undercurrent of a scream could be heard. “A vessel. Mine to take.”

Kakashi gave up his futile grasping at the liquid, and raced through a set of hand signs so quickly that even with his sharingan Obito had a hard time making them out. When Kakashi finished on the tiger sign, a giant column of flame shot out of his mouth. It did nothing to slow the goddess’s advance into him. Kakashi's chakra was slowing, Obito could see, nearly entirely fused with Zetsu's poisonous energy. The majority of Zetsu had disappeared into Obito’s old teammate by now, and Kakashi’s pupils were flashing yellow just as often as they were black.

In one final desperate motion, Kakashi threw his hands out to the side and spun in a manner not unlike Hinata’s juuken. Chakra receivers shot out, covering all the space around him in a wall of black. Startled shouts came from the shinobi around them, and Obito quickly dropped to the ground, dragging his down students with him. Most of the other shinobi did the same, either ducking for cover or creating some of their own. One Kumo kunoichi, however, was too slow, and a receiver impaled her right through the stomach. Even as she cried out in pain, coughing up blood, her eyes turned rinnegan purple and she lurched towards Kakashi in a sprint. She shoved a hand into the greatest amount of Zetsu still accessible, which was gathered mostly on Kakashi’s neck. When she drew her hand back, a misty violet connected it to the Zetsu.

“Is that…?” Naruto trailed off.

“The Human Path,” Obito confirmed, crimson eyes transfixed on what was happening to his old friend-turned-enemy.

Sasuke went very still at the memory of having his own soul pulled on during Pain’s invasion.

The sentient liquid churned violently, seemingly resisting the Human Path's pull. Obito sharingan could see Zetsu's chakra being extracted with it, slowly being separated from Kakashi's own chakra. With a final yank from the possessed kunoichi, the chakra-laden liquid all came spewing out of Kakashi’s throat. While his puppet wrangled with his would-be possessor, Kakashi collapsed to the ground, coughing violently. He gagged, spitting and vomiting onto the rocks below him, holding himself up on shaky palms. It took only a few seconds for him to empty his stomach. Obito imagined that, like him, Kakashi likely hadn’t eaten anything other than a few ration bars since the war began. Bile splattered the rocks Kakashi's form as he drew slowly drew in shuddering breaths.

The vessel of the Human Path, meanwhile, was struggling to keep the roiling ink at bay. Suspended in between her hands, the substance kept fluctuating in form. It went from an oil, to a smoky looking substance, to a misty haze, back to a liquid all within a few seconds. 

Kakashi choked, but when he lifted his head his eyes were lethal. He lifted himself up to his knees, staring at the possessed mass that was once Zetsu with murderous intent. “I am Kakashi Hatake,” he gasped out. He pushed himself to his feet. “I will be the saviour of the shinobi world.” He staggered forward towards where the possessed kunoichi held Kaguya’s will. “I lost my father.” Another shaky step. “My sensei.” Kakashi nearly stumbled, but caught himself and continued. “My love.” Bijuu chakra flowed freely off of him, preventing any other shinobi from approaching without being caught in the corrosive energy. “I gave up my friends and my village for my quest.” He began a series of hand signs Obito had seen only once before in his life, on Minato-sensei’s hands the night the Kyuubi attacked their village, and the night Kakashi disappeared from his life. The Shiki Fujin. “If I need to, I will give up my life.”

Kakashi stopped before Kaguya’s will, bleeding murderous intent. Zetsu’s body struggled and thrashed even more violently than before, but to no avail. Kakashi raised one glowing hand towards it. “If you really thought some washed-up rabbit could stop me, then you don’t deserve to exist.”

Obito choked. After finally getting through to his old friend, Obito had really thought that they might have gotten their fairy-tale ending.

An unintelligible scream of rage escaped Zetsu. Kakashi wasn’t impressed. “I think you’ve shown that you’re the greatest threat there is to peace. The greatest success I could achieve in my goal would be erasing you.”

Kakashi turned to Obito, and wasn’t it messed up that the first time Obito actually saw the bastard truly smile was at the end of the world. “I’m sorry, Obito. Maybe in another world this would have turned out better. But I’m afraid this is goodbye.”

“Bastard,” Obito growled. “You came back after twenty years, only to destroy the world and leave again?”

Kakashi laughed. It was tinged with sadness and regret, but it was still an open, genuine laugh. “I guess I did. If I end up where the others are, I’m sure Rin and Kushina will be there to chew me out.”

As they looked at each other, the confused murmurings of the rest of the Alliance seemed to fade away. In that one eternal moment, Obito tried to convey to the man that had been his brother in all but blood all of the thoughts and confusion and love he still held for him.

Kakashi broke eye contact first, and Obito could only hope he had understood. “I’m sorry, Obito,” he said, focusing his attention back on Zetsu. The Human Path was breathing laboriously trying to keep it contained. “Finish what Sensei started. Bring peace to this world. I don't know if we're going to the same place, so I don't know if I'll be waiting for you. But, wherever I end up...” Kakashi lowered his hand to Zetsu, and there was a blinding flash of light. “I’ll be cheering you on.”

After the white flare faded from Obito’s eyes, he stared at where his friend had been, but there was nothing left but footprints. The Rinnegan, the Juubi jinchuuriki, and Kaguya were all gone. Kakashi was gone.

The Fourth Shinobi World War was over.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to raendown for letting me adapt their wonderful work! (Seriously, go read it). As I planned out what I was going to write, it eventually grew into something very different and very long that I don't know if I'll ever actually write, but I at least wanted to write and post this. I don't know why but I was really inspired for some reason by Kakashi's "I am no one" line from the raendown's work, so that gets a mention here. I may write the rest of this story one day.  
> please send help im in akatsuki kakashi hell and there are nowhere near enough fics to satisfy me


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